The San Francisco Chronicle was down. Daily dropped 5.3% to 373,805 and Sunday fell 7.3% to 432,957.

The New York Times lost 3.5% daily to 1,086,798 and 3.5% on Sunday to 1,623,697. Its sister publication, The Boston Globe, reported decreases in daily circulation, down 6.7% to 386,415 and Sunday, down 9.9% to 587,292.

The Washington Post lost daily circulation, which was down 3.3% to 656,297 while Sunday declined 2.6% to 930,619.

Circulation losses at The Wall Street Journal were average, with daily down 1.9% to 2,043,235. The paper’s Weekend Edition, however, saw its circulation fall 6.7% to 1,945,830.

Losses at the Miami Herald were steep. Daily circulation fell 8.8% to 265,583 and Sunday fell 9.1% to 361,846.

And on and on.

Only one major metro newspaper bucked the trend–Rupert Murdoch’s NYPost:

The New York Post got a leg up in the city’s tab wars. Daily circulation at the paper overtook the Daily News and showed gains of 5% — perhaps the only major metro in the country to report such growth — to 704,011 copies.

The New York Post today surpassed the Daily News and The Washington Post to become the 5th largest newspaper in America after bucking the national trend and chalking up a whopping 5.1 percent jump in circulation.

The Post’s average paid circulation was 704,011 for Monday to Friday in the six-month period ending Sept. 30, the Audit Bureau of Circulations reported.

That’s an increase of 34,348 copies over the same period in 2005.

“This is a joyous occasion for the paper and its readers,” said Post editor-in-chief Col Allan. “The first question we ask every morning is what do our readers – our bosses – want to see in tomorrow’s paper. And then we get it for them – the best sports in town, great gossip and features, hard-hitting news, and opinion that shapes the debate.”

Hemorrhaging left-wing newspapers could learn a thing or two about gaining and keeping readers from the NYPost, don’t ya think?